Nick Khan wanted to make sure WWE was at the adult table.
Khan was hired by WWE in August 2020 as the President and Chief Revenue Officer. Formerly serving as an agent for CAA Sports, Khan was brought in to help take WWE to the next level in the media and content marketplace.
“If it once was a mom-and-pop shop, Vince (McMahon) certainly didn’t believe it was anymore,” Khan said in an interview with John Ourand of SBJ. “Part of what I believe he was looking for in bringing in someone from the outside was to make sure the community at large didn’t treat it that way. We believe we’re a global content company. Vince believed that WWE was at a place where it had earned a seat at the adult table, but others in the company didn’t see it that way. For the company to be treated the way that Vince, Stephanie (McMahon), [WWE executive] Kevin Dunn and myself and others believed it should be treated in the community, you needed executives who reflected that, who had range, who could get people on the phone and who could be taken seriously by their peers."
Since Khan's arrival, WWE has undergone many on-screen and behind the scenes with talent being released in the name of "budget cuts" along with management and department shakeups.
WWE continues to be as profitable as ever with their business deals, striking a $1 billion deal with Peacock to migrate the WWE Network over to the platform.
"In what is now a cluttered OTT subscriber marketplace, it only made sense to partner with somebody. We want to be in business with everybody who is a real player in this business. Understanding the business — where it’s at and where it’s heading — is a key part to all of this," he said.
Khan noted that WWE has taken incoming calls from companies looking to buy, but is not in active conversations to sell. He made a similar point in August. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
